Book Brouhaha

I brought up in a previous post the idea that writing is like an RPG game .  For me, I like the Role Playing Game comparison because it uses numbers and strict rules.  Numbers and rules are not ambiguous like plot. This idea of strict rules continues when it comes to spacial awareness.  If a character can only move three spaces per turn then it would take two turns to move six spaces.  This is a limit to movement and actions. The same is true for characters in a book.  Unless a character has magical abilities or super powers, there is a limit to what the standard human can do.  If the character is on one side of the planet in one chapter, that same character cannot suddenly appear on the other side of the planet that same day.  Enough story time must pass that allows for the character to travel that journey. This is a trap that I see authors fall into quite a bit while beta reading.  All too often I see the movement and actions of characters...

Creating characters is like playing a role playing game.  In fact, now that I think about it, games like Dungeons & Dragons or Pathfinder are  fantasy writing.  The point being that you have to create your characters with abilities and limitations and then adhere to them in order to create a believable adventure. Continuing with the RPG (Role Playing Game) example, if a character has 20 health left and a sword with 5 attack, that's all that character gets.  It's very straightforward.  It means that once that character's health gets below 20, he's dead.  If that character is facing a monster, the maximum amount of damage that he can inflict with one hit is 5.  So a monster with 10 health would require two hits. I'm using the RPG example because it involves numbers.  Numbers are simple and creating an immersive world for readers is not.  However, the "environmental logic" is the same.  Characters must adhere to a set of rules--th...

Summary: Tales of the unexpected, ranging from stories of crime and vengeance through to ghostly happenings in an ancient mansion. Review: A pleasant collection of flash fiction length pieces.  The stories are engaging and fun to read, though a bit simplistic with their twist endings.  Most veteran crime readers will be able to predict the ending of each story before it happens.  With some polish I could see Morris' style becoming quite thought-provoking. Still, the flash fiction was written well.  Each story was a complete experience and didn't feel rushed, which I appreciated.  It's worth picking up a copy if you want an easy afternoon read. 3/5 stars Reviewed by Alain Gomez Buy this collection on Amazon .

They say that more than half of our communication comes from non-verbal cues.  Naturally, this has led to a hundred studies trying to figure out exactly  how much communication is verbal.  But you get the idea.  Suffice to say that if you were to watch a movie and put the sound on mute you could still generally tell what sorts of emotions the characters are experiencing. Unfortunately, this is something that tends to get easily lost during the writing process.  Writing is about words... the verbal part of communication, right? Wrong. To me, the most memorable books are the ones that create a world for you to become lost in.  You love the characters because they seem real even if the setting is in an alternate universe.  In order for that setting to become real the writer must give the reader non-verbal details to latch on to. For example, telling the reader that a character is angry doesn't create much of an impact.  How angry ...

I've been beta reading for authors for quite some time now.  It has been an interesting process, to say the least.  I love that it allows me to meet fellow authors that are all in a different stage of their writing career.  The process of helping them has, in turn, helped me a great deal.  Beta reading forces me to take a much closer look at the flaws in my own writing and to try and figure out ways to fix these issues. What's interesting to me is that many writers suffer from the same mistakes while working through that first novel or short story.  I've done enough of these beta projects to now see patterns in what I come across.  So I thought it would be useful to do a blog series on these common mistakes. In each blog post in this series I'll address the mistake and a possible solution to this type of mistake.  However, I feel the need to add a small disclaimer: I'm not a best selling author that makes millions of dollars from my writing.  ...

My new favorite thing is noise canceling headphones.  I've had a pair for years but lately I've been using them to write.  Game changer! I'm generally very focused once I get into a focusing zone.  However, everything about my brain requires long stretches of start up/shut down.  It takes me at least an hour to fully wake up in the morning (and that's with coffee) and when I go to sleep it's a several hour long process.  The same goes for focusing.  I can work for long stretches of time but calming down enough to actually get into the focusing zone can require some work. So I took the advice of a friend and tried headphones with music.  I made myself a playlist of classic music--no words!  It took some getting used to.  I'm a musician so my first instinct when I hear music is to focus on it.  But I kept the volume turned down low and I made a point of having the music on only when I'm writing .  If I turned away to look at my ph...